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Curious Cat Kivans

Investing and Economics Blog

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 244,000 in April, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.0% (from 8.8%) as the labor force grew slightly, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Also the number of jobs added is taken from the household survey while the unemployment rate is taken from the business payroll survey (they often have slightly different readings month to month). I, and many others, suspected the 8.8% figure might have been a bit low (and frankly the 9% figure may as well). In April of 2010 the unemployment rate was at 9.9%.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised from +194,000 to +235,000, and the change for March was revised from +216,000 to +221,000. Bringing the total jobs added with this report to 290,000 (244,000 + 41,000 + 5,000) – which is a very good result. Now if we can keep this up for a year that would be great. Overall this provides very encouraging news on the job front.

The number of unemployed persons stands at 13.7 million, up a little in April. Unemployment rates for several groups stood at: adult men 8.8%, adult women 7.9%, teenagers 24.9%, whites 8.0%, blacks 16.1%, Hispanics 11.8% and for Asians was 6.4%.

In another positive sign, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) declined by 283,000 to 5.8 million; their share of unemployment declined to 43.4%. This is still a serious problem, but at least it is improving a bit.

The civilian labor force participation rate was 64.2% for the fourth consecutive month. The employment-population ratio, at 58.4%, changed little in April.

The private sector added 268,000 jobs. Employment rose in a number of service-providing industries, manufacturing, and mining. Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.8 million. Private sector employment has increased by 2.1 million over the same period.

Manufacturing employment rose by 29,000 in April. Since reaching an employment low in December 2009, manufacturing has added 250,000 jobs, including 141,000 in 2011. This is more great news. There has been real strength in manufacturing. Manufacturing is a real source of strength and if it can continue to be strong that will be very good news.

Mining added 11,000 jobs in April. More than half of the gain occurred in
support activities for mining. Since a recent low point in October 2009,
employment in mining has increased by 107,000.

Construction employment was about unchanged in April. This industry has shown
little net movement since early 2010, after having fallen sharply during the
prior 3 years.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained
at 34.3 hours in April. The manufacturing workweek for all employees, at
40.4 hours, also was unchanged over the month, while factory overtime
increased by 0.1 hour to 3.3 hours. The average workweek for production
and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged in
April at 33.6 hours.

In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm
payrolls increased by 3 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $22.95. Over the past 12
months, average hourly earnings increased by 1.9%. In April, average
hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees
rose by 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $19.37.